After life-changing week in Charleston, Yuliia Starodubtseva aims to carry momentum to red clay

CHARLESTON—Yuliia Starodubtseva is ready to take the European clay swing by storm. But first, the Credit One Charleston Open finalist is taking a break.

“I was going to play a tournament next week in Madrid; there’s a 125k,” Starodubtseva recalled after a 6-2, 6-2 defeat to defending champ Jesica Pegula. “I was meant to play a 125 in Portugal the following week, and after that I had Madrid 1000.

“I feel like I deserve a little break. You want to take some breaks, and like the more you obviously lose, the more weeks you need to play. So, I find it like a reward in a way that I can take some weeks for myself. I'm also moving places. I have a lot to do, and going to take some days off tennis as well.”

By the end of a breakthrough week on Charleston's green clay—during which she reached her first WTA final and scored a dominant win over 2025 Australian Open champion Madison Keys—the Old Dominion University alum confessed to feeling sensory overload in the championship match against Jessica Pegula.

“I call it stimulation,” she said in her post-match press conference. “Like, because you go find a tournament and you play somebody great -- like I played Madison Keys in the semis. I couldn't sleep the night before or fall asleep because all I think about is the match next day. And it is overwhelming, but when you can't fall asleep and you just keep thinking about like what's going to happen tomorrow, how are you going to play, what are you going to do, I haven't found a solution yet how to fix this.

“But I feel like the more I put myself on further stages in the tournaments, I feel like I'll learn how to cope with it as well.”

Hopefully aiding in Starodubtseva’s goal of inner peace are plans to use her Charleston prize money to bring on a traveling physio. She also leaves the United States with a more assured on-court identity, one to which she began committing earlier this month at the Miami Open.

“I feel like I changed up a bit my play style and kind of like realized what type of player I actually am, and I think I'll try and build from there on,” she said.

“I definitely played more aggressive tennis last two weeks, and I think it's in my nature, and maybe I haven't been letting myself do it in previous weeks, maybe tried to do more other stuff rather than just keeping it simple and be aggressive in certain moments. And I think this was like the biggest lesson in the last two weeks that I had.”

The 26-year-old is tentatively planning to return to action at the Mutua Madrid Open, previously the site of her biggest career breakthrough; just over a year ago, she reached the fourth round as a qualifier. Between Madrid and Charleston, Starodubtseva is sensing a pattern.

“I feel like maybe my favorite surface is becoming like fast clay, and Madrid is that,” she told me. “Roland-Garros is that. I did good there as well.

“Here is like the clay is a bit faster. I feel like I did good here as well. So, I'm kind of excited for that tournament, and I know I have to maybe defend a lot of points there, but I feel like I have no pressure here. Just going to try and do my best there.”

“I think [clay] really suits her game,” agreed Pegula. “She's really tricky. I think maybe she wasn't playing her best. I think I was playing at a really high level. But then you could see at the end there that, like, she didn't miss a ball for like two games, and I was like, ‘Oh, she's going after it right now.’ And I think that's probably what caused everyone a lot of issues earlier in the week in her earlier rounds here.

Starodubtseva is projected to rise over 35 spots in the rankings, just outside the Top 50.